How to Become a Doula: Your Guide to a Meaningful Career in Birthwork
Becoming a doula is more than just a career path—it's a calling. Doulas provide emotional, physical, and informational support to birthing people during one of the most transformative moments in life. Whether you’re brand new to birthwork or have been supporting families informally, this guide will walk you through what it takes to become a doula and how to find the right training program for you.
Roxy Evans, doula, assists a laboring person.
What Does a Doula Do?
A doula is a trained professional who offers non-medical support during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. Doulas:
Provide continuous labor support
Offer comfort techniques like massage, breathwork, and positioning
Educate clients about birth options and advocacy
Hold space for the emotional and physical intensity of birth
Support postpartum recovery, newborn care, and feeding choices
Studies have shown that having a doula can reduce the need for interventions, shorten labor, and improve outcomes for both birthing person and baby.
Do You Need Certification to Be a Doula?
In most places, doulas are not legally required to be certified. That said, completing a reputable training program not only builds your confidence and skills—it also makes you more credible to clients, hospitals, and community partners.
One of the most widely recognized organizations for doula certification is DONA International, which has been setting standards in the field since 1992. However, many doulas choose alternative or complementary trainings that offer a more holistic, trauma-informed, and inclusive approach to birthwork.
Step-by-Step: How to Become a Doula
1. Explore Your Why
Ask yourself: Why do I want to support people in birth? What kind of families do I want to serve? Do I feel called to hospital settings, home births, or postpartum care? Grounding in your “why” will help guide your next steps.
2. Choose the Right Training
There are many doula trainings out there—and not all are created equal. Look for one that is:
Evidence-based
Trauma-informed
Inclusive of diverse identities and experiences
Grounded in physiology and functional movement
If you're looking for a training that goes beyond textbook learning and prepares you to serve families with deep confidence and skill, check out our Embodied Birth Doula Trainings. We offer:
6-week live Zoom series
3-day weekend intensive
In-person trainings with Zoom hybrid option
Our trainings combine anatomy, advocacy, movement, and mentorship, so you’re not just learning what to do—you’re learning how to show up as a grounded, capable, and connected birthworker.
3. Attend Births and Gain Experience
Most trainings (including DONA’s and ours) encourage or require hands-on experience. Attending births—whether as part of a mentorship, internship, or through your own network—is invaluable.
At Flow of Life, we also support our doulas through connections to local hospitals, on-call programs, and community partnerships so you can step into this work with support, not isolation.
4. Start Building Your Doula Practice
Once trained, you’ll want to:
Build a website or landing page
Network with other birth professionals
Create contracts and client forms
Decide your pricing or sliding scale structure
Get liability insurance (optional, but recommended)
Need help with the biz side? We've got support for that too—just ask about our free "Kick Start Your Birth Biz" guide!
A doula provides bodywork assists to a laboring person.
Final Thoughts: Birthwork Is Community Care Work
Becoming a doula is more than learning techniques—it’s about reclaiming community care, challenging systems that fail birthing people, and walking alongside families during sacred transitions. You don’t have to have a certain background or identity to do this work. If you feel the call—you belong here.
Ready to start your journey?
👉 Check out our upcoming Embodied Birth Doula Trainings and find the format that works for your life.
We can’t wait to welcome you into this powerful work. 🌿
